VIII 
NATIVE CHILDREN 
IOI 
I learnt more about the natives and their habits than I did 
anywhere else. Mrs. Bauer came here when this place 
was first settled, her husband then being manager of a 
large sugar plantation some miles down the coast, which 
has since been given up on account of heavy labour 
expenses. She had always kept a diary, which was 
most interesting, written as it was in the very early 
days of the colony. 
Here the natives brought me spears and dilly bags, 
in which they carry their food. They are, as elsewhere, 
very keen for money, and spend it at once on tobacco. 
They are a miserable-looking race, and are still, even 
close to the town, cannibals. Even when any of them 
die a natural death, the temptation is frequently too 
strong, and when they are burning the dead bodies, as 
they often do with their deceased relatives, they will 
snatch at portions of the flesh and eat it. 
When young babies die, they double them up be- 
tween two pieces of bark and carry them about from 
camp to camp, often using them as a pillow. It is 
quite unbearable to go near them at such times, but 
they do not seem to notice it themselves. They pierce 
their noses and tattoo themselves across the chest, rais- 
ing up a great ridge of flesh with the deep cutting, 
which is done with sharp shells and then filled up with 
clay. They also cover bad wounds with this clay, and 
the children are particularly fond of eating it. Two 
white children died here not long ago from eating the 
same stuff. Black children eat and grow stout on what 
would kill a white child, just as poor little white gutter 
children thrive amid drains which to a country child 
would mean certain sickness or death. I tasted this 
edible clay, but found it far too nasty to swallow. The 
women do not wash their babies in water until they are 
sometimes two years old, but they rub them all over 
